Paris!

After 3 days in Paris I have come to one conclusion: 3 are not enough for this incredible city.  Everyone who gets the chance should experience Paris in the fall as my 3 friends and I had the chance to do over Halloween weekend. It was my favorite trip within Europe so far. After some intense stress with the airlines we finally made it to Paris a day later than expected.

Because of the infamous strike most flights were being cancelled—ours unfortunately was one. We had to quickly find a new flight if we didn’t want to cancel our trip all together. Instead of flying out Thursday night we flew Friday morning. A couple of delays and headaches later we landed at 2pm in Beauvais Airport. Honestly, it looked like a circus tent and the land around it was a lot of farming plains…we were hoping we took the correct flight to Paris. The airport was complete with one large room and a bathroom. 

We had to take an hour bus which dropped us off in the city and then took a taxi to our hostel, The 3 Ducks. We were so excited to finally be in Paris we dropped our stuff and headed out for a long walk through the city to a site visited by the Olsen twins in Passport to Paris—Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg gardens) With the colored leaves and beautiful statues the scenery was breathtaking. We had a nice walk around the park, took some pictures, walked by the Panthéon and just took it all in as we went.

We eventually made it to Notre Dame and found it was free entry because a mass was going on. We got to enter the first floor and see a live mass taking place in one of the most famous churches in the world. Since it was getting dark we decided since it’s the symbol of Paris we should go see the Eiffel Tower lighted up. We took our first Paris Metropolitan ride (their subway) and followed the spotlight beaming from the top. The first 5 minutes of every hour the tower twinkles with white and yellow lights creating an amazing spectacle that can’t be captured truthfully on film. We had a perfect spot for pictures. We walked around the tower in search of some dinner until we came upon a restaurant with a jack-o-lantern outside. We shared some pizza, pasta and salad (I know it’s not French but that’s coming) After dinner we went back to the hostel, planned out the next day and got some rest as our legs were not used to walking miles and miles.

On the agenda for Saturday morning was the Musée du Lourve. We got there at 9am to get in line for tickets early and barely waited. We went straight for the Mona Lisa first and then wandered the rest of the museum. We saw famous works such as the Venus de Milo, many paintings by Velázquez and old Egyptian structures. The museum is enormous but the architecture is amazing. We took pictures by the glass triangles and fountains where the main entrance is situated. We walked through the Jardin des Tuileries, past the Obélisque and noticed we could see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. On our way to the arc we discovered a great thing Paris has to offer…fresh crepes on the street. We each got a chocolate/banana hot crepe and inhaled them. SO delicious. The problem is once you eat one and keep walking you continue to smell them. We found nutella crepes and just couldn’t say no. So we had another one. We had been walking all day so we had an excuse.

A toast in front of the Eiffel Tower

We walked the Champs-Elysées which is the famous road for upscale shopping that leads to the Arc de Triomphe. The circle of road that surrounds the monument is one of the most dangerous areas to drive in the world as there are no lanes or traffic lights. Good thing we were walking nowhere near it. After some pictures we found a small grocery store and bought a baguette, some French cheese, apples and French champagne and went to sit in the Parc du Champs de Mars in between the Eiffel Tower and the École Militaire for a picnic and a toast to a great weekend in Paris. It was a gorgeous day. We walked under the tower and along the Seine River under the gold trees on a perfect fall day. Before reaching the hostel for a quick nap my friend Marissa and I found candy apples. We had to buy one since they are super rare, especially in Madrid. That truly made it a fall day.

After a much needed rest all 4 of us got dressed up and found a nice French restaurant that had an English menu so that was a clear sign we should eat there. It was a great choice. We started with escargot for an appetizer. Yes, we all ate snails and they are actually not bad at all. They do have the consistency of chewing a deflated balloon however they were cooked in pesto garlic sauce mmmm. You have to have snails when you visit Paris, it’s too cliché not to. For my meal I had grilled duck with potatoes and a salad, my friends had scallops, steak and chicken and we all tried some of each. We walked a lot slower out of the restaurant than we walked in and made it slowly back to the hostel for some oreos and peanut butter for dessert thanks to my mom.

The next morning was Halloween, not as big of a holiday in Europe but some people were dressed up. For us it was the day to climb the Eiffel Tower…yes, climb. We got in line at 8:30am to climb the 377 feet to the second floor. Plus, the elevator line was longer than that of Space Mountain. The view is unlike anything else. We had such a beautiful day to add to the greatness. We took an elevator down to the bottom after getting good pictures of the city and walked to the train station to head to Versailles to find the chocolate festival. I learned the hard way that when your friend calls your name it means get on the train. I was trying to get a water bottle out of the vending machine when suddenly the doors to the train began closing and I missed the train and watched my friends speed off without me. Rather than being scared or mad I just laughed at myself. I met a nice older couple from Oregon going to Versailles and and we chatted on the train until I reunited with my friends.

Outside the train station was a McDonalds and we were starving for some lunch. That is usually not what you want to eat when traveling Europe but it was there and it was cheap. It’s interesting to try the same restaurant in different countries because it’s always different. While having lunch we were trying to figure out where the Chocolate Festival was being held as this was an event we planned to visit. However we quickly realized that we had mistaken and the festival is in Porte de Versailles which is in Paris, not actually in Versailles. So we took the train for nothing as there was no chocolate festival to be found. But we did wander to the Château de Versailles for some pictures but it had tons of tourists in line to go inside. We took the train back to Paris and find the actual chocolate festival. It was very close to our hostel and was being held in what looked like a convention center however it was 12.50€ just to get in so we decided to walk back to the hostel for a nap instead. That wasn’t before sharing some street food of a French baguette with a kebab of chicken, a chorizo hot dog, mustard and onions. So good, but beware of French mustard…it’s more like wasabi.

We all shared a bottle of pink French wine and chatted about all the things we did. We wandered around the hostel a little later to stumble upon a Chinese take-out place and brought it back to the hostel for a quick dinner and to pack up our stuff and say goodbye to Paris. Our adventures to the airports (that’s plural, yes) were nothing short of ridiculous.

Lauren and I had kept our original flights and were flying out of Orly Airport however Marissa and Kristy were flying out of Charles de Gaulle Airport which was on the other side of the city. We took one train all together and then had to go our separate ways. Lauren and I made it to the correct stop but had no idea how to exit the station because none of the tickets we had previously bought were opening the two metal doors. This machine was nothing you could possibly jump over and it was midnight at this point and we’re already scared because we have to spend the night in the airport. Thankfully 2 Greek guys about our age held the doors open as we heaved our backpacks and full-of-snails bodies through the metal doors and into civilization. Meanwhile Marissa and Kristy were on the wrong train. Once Lauren and I reached the outside of the station we find there are no more buses going to the airport which we had been counting on. The Greek guys asked if we’d like to share a cab and Lauren and I being lucky had a combined 5.50€ in cash. The guys offered to front it and we took a 20 minute taxi ride with the craziest French taxi driver ever. I kissed the ground when we reached the terminal. Then it was a wild goose chase for an ATM and an Air France kiosk. Neither in sigh, we stayed in communication with Kristy and Marissa who caught the last train of the night to get to the airport after being followed by a drunk French man speaking gibberish. (Their description, not mine)

Finally an ATM was found and we paid back the Greek guys and bid farewell and good luck only to realize it was us who needed good luck because neither Air France nor our flight was anywhere in sight. We figured out we were in the completely wrong terminal and had to walk 15 minutes to the other one. Walking outside an empty airport in the middle of the night probably looked suspicious. Of course it’s cold outside and 1 out of the 60 doors into the correct terminal was open and it just happened to be the last one we tried. We find Air France and camp out for 6 hours, sleep for 2 and get woken up by the flight attendants coming into work. Lauren took a 25 minute adventure to find a vending machine for water and came back with a chocolate bar. Why I gave her 2€ and the freedom to roam the airport I don’t know. So, parched and hyper on chocolate we’re still waiting. 6am rolls around and we figure out we’re on the wrong side of the terminal, walk to the correct gate, wait in line to check bags even though we didn’t need to, get frisked in security and find a seat near the gate. Again, Lauren wanders off with money to buy water. This time she comes back with a croissant, a small chocolate cream pie and a bottle of Orangina. I didn’t even ask what was going on through her head because she shared the pie with me.

We finally got on the flight and landed back in Madrid at 9:30am after Kristy and Marissa made it back. We did so many things through our time in Paris and still didn’t see everything. I was exhausted but I am willing to call my trip to Paris one of my favorite adventures ever. Getting back to my señora’s house I realized today is November 1^st. One month left. Better make the rest of my time here count!

Hasta la proxima!